Franz Lehár

Theatre pits and a military regiment's bandstand completed the training Franz Lehár had begun as a violinist at the Prague Conservatory. The Merry Widow was first given in Vienna in 1905. The Count of Luxembourg, Gypsy Love, Paganini, The Tsarevich and The Land of Smiles followed, the later ones written for the tenor Richard Tauber and drawing steadily away from comedy: Das Land des Lächelns ends unhappily. He died at Bad Ischl in 1948. Das Land des Lächelns reached the stage at the Metropol Theater in Berlin on 10 October 1929, to a libretto by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner-Beda. Giuditta was given at the Vienna State Opera on 20 January 1934 with Jarmila Novotná and Tauber in the leading parts and the composer conducting; the broadcast carried to a hundred and twenty radio stations, it ran forty-two times in that first season, and further performances there became infrequent.